


Come Here Often?

by Questions3



Series: Nightshade [7]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Actual Thief Bilbo, BAMF Bilbo, BAMF Nori, F/M, Female Bilbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 07:52:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Questions3/pseuds/Questions3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ori may be staying home more often.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Here Often?

**Author's Note:**

> This is not how I'd anticipated them meeting, actually. It's a hell of a lot darker, not that it's all that dark but still. I guess there's no better way to bond than over the broken neck of an asshole who was after your blood.

 

            “Oooohh,” Ori groaned into his sweater-covered arms as he came to. It took a few blinks to erase the blur from his eyes but when he did it only made him moan again as he realized he was behind bars in a dank, dark dungeon. The last thing he remembered was chasing after Nori as his shifty brother had taken off out the bedroom window that eve. His elder brother had come home to visit after one of his extended trips away from the Mountain. He’d been gone doing who knew what who knew where, but Dori’d had a good enough idea as Nori’d brought them a sack full of coin. Even with the lecture Dori gave the middle son of Vori it was hard to deny the success of the illicit dealings their brother was a party to as that sack of coin would keep the small family fed and sheltered for another three months even with the price gouging that was happening throughout the Mountain Market. Dori worked his hands and back to the bone as he tried to keep his tea shop running but it was getting harder and harder with the abuse he was made to take from the higher end merchants and the fact most families weren’t able to afford the luxury that was tea when they could barely afford the necessity that was food. The only steady income they were receiving was from a very young dwarrowdam (not a hair on her chin but a lovely young woman with large purple eyes that reminded Ori of the violets Dori muddled into some of his brews) who would pop in once a month or so and order a whole case of one of Dori’s eucalyptus and chamomile concoctions. The eldest Ri brother was heard often berating his fellow merchants and venders for their abuse of their fellow dwarrow. It was the lack of accountability and blatant greed that was making their new lives so much harder to maintain and continue. Many families were thinking of leaving the Colony to find their own way in cities of Men or in that odd little settlement near Breeland with the Halfling creatures.

            Ori was very curious about the wee folk as he’d heard they were some odd mix of Man and Elf but smaller than even the smallest dwarrow. Being as he felt himself to _be_ the smallest dwarrow in the Mountain it wasn’t surprising he’d been interested in learning more. They were supposed to be creatures of the land and nature but little more was known. Nori had promised him the next trip he took outside the Mountain he’d try and pop through the little home of the wee folk and try and find him a tomb. But before anything of the sort could be done or enjoyed, Ori would have to find a way out of his present predicament. The longer he was awake the more he was remembering as he recalled chasing after his elder brother trying to catch a glimpse into the shady life his kin was living to provide for them. It distressed Ori to know he was just a lot of dead weight. Both the elder sons of Vori were adamant that their youngest sibling should better himself by continuing his studies, working on his scribing and definitely _not_ distracting himself with the shop or with Nori’s form of employment. So the young dwarrow, decades away from his maturity, was happily ensconced in a world of books and quills. If he could just receive his apprenticeship with one of the Masters he’d be able to _begin_ to support his own _studies_ at least, instead of taking the food from Dori’s mouth for the price of his entirely too expensive ink. But there wasn’t a Master in the Mountain or any of the surrounding settlements who would take the young lad, for multiple reasons but they all equated to the same thing. No one wished to take up with the family of Vori as they were viewed as undesirable. They were cousins of the Durin Royals, but it wasn’t a relation created on the right side of the sheets.

            Since he couldn’t find a Master he was reduced to useless and a mere dependent and in an ill attempt to try and prove himself capable the lad had decided to try and follow his brother, show he had some skills that were marketable and maybe begin to work for his own keep in this Mountain. But not three caverns over from their home he’d lost track of the expert and had found himself wandering alone around the less than reputable part of the mountain. He’d managed to get himself well and truly lost when he’d suddenly felt a burst of bright white pain and fell to darkness. Now he was here, apparently hanging from a ceiling in a rather shaky, rusted iron cage, staring into a dark underground river, only a muttering of distant voices telling him he wasn’t alone and implying he’d been taken here on purpose.

            “Dori’s gonna kill me,” he groaned as he gripped the bars and looked down into the rushing waters. The vertigo that resulted was only staunched by the sharp shock and fear when his sad statement was answered.”

            “He’ll have to get in line, it seems.” With a sharp yelp the lad spun around and found he was apparently not alone as, not three feet from his swinging cage hung another with a tiny, cloaked figure. The bare faced lass smiled at him with a friendly mouth as she leaned against the bars of her own cage.

            “Who are you!?” Ori asked, his voice breaking in his shock, brown eyes widening in trepidation. The cloaked one raised a gloved finger to her mouth for silence and Ori complied. She seemed harmless enough, but there was an odd air about her, one he related to his brother, of restrained savagery as she stared through the dark towards the voices. He couldn’t make anything out but he watched, as the small smile seemed to melt away and form into a deep and dark expression of anger and disgust.

            Sensing his gaze, the hood turned towards him once more and the smile reappeared, more reassuring than before as she reached across the distance towards his own cell. “Now listen carefully Ori, those dwarrow who’ve brought us here are rather upset with your brother. It seems they were hoping to use us as a form of incentive when they meet with him later tonight. I don’t know what we’re supposed to be incentive for but it’s all together unsavory. And I dislike the way they’re referring to the pair of us as it were. So I’ll need your help to get us both out of this mess we’ve found ourselves in, do you understand?”

            Ori just shook as he stared at the extended appendage. It was so tiny and he was just a scribe, how was he supposed to help her get them out of here? “I can’t do anything! I can’t even find my way home! How am I going to help get us out of this?!”

            His face flushed as her smile sent a warm feeling shooting through him as it morphed from reassuring to something like knowing fondness, “Because you are Nori’s brother. And I very much doubt Nori would waste his time with someone not worth it, or spend so much energy keeping you safe if you weren’t worth the effort.” A stomp of footsteps was heard from the cavern as the voices grew closer. With a wicked smile now in place, sending an all together different shiver down the lad’s spine she looked back at the young dwarrow and whispered, “Come now, lets show them why they shouldn’t underestimate youth and wit.”

            It was probably one of his less than brilliant ideas but Ori reached out and clasped the gloved hand in his own. They began to swing their hands back and forth, the motion moving the cages as they did. The creaking was terrifying, and the first clang of a rusted link straining under the motion sent a clamor through the approaching voices. Booted steps picked up pace as the clang got even louder and the squeal of straining iron failing caused terror to race through Ori’s mind, but he held tight to the hand in his own. Suddenly his stomach dropped out from under him and the last thing he saw before his lungs fought for air was the shocked faces of a group of nasty looking dwarrow bursting into the room.

            The river water was salted, but not with ocean salts, no this was mineral salts, those that rushed through the mountain and supplied the dwarrow economy. And it was slowly going to kill him. He beat at the gate as rocks beat against him and his cage but his strength was waning. Just as he was about to send his last prayer to Mahal he felt small, desperate hands reach into the bars and drag him up, into blessed air. She was there, crouched on top of the cage door as the rapids whisked them away, “I need you to hang on a tic!” With that he was thrust back into the water, but this time he watched through dark, burning liquid as nimble fingers made quick work of a lock and, together, they thrust the door open. He clambered onto the cage with her. It sank lower into the mud below but the current was still so strong it continued to sweep them away. It wasn’t the depth that would end them but the rapids as they narrowly avoided being smashed against boulders and stalagmites. Even still they found themselves thrown with bruising and breaking force into the mineral deposits on the sides of the embankments.

            It was entirely too long before the current calmed and they were suddenly dropped into a deeper well of still water. The cavern they found themselves in was lit in an eerie blue by luminescent cave fungus that crawled up the domed walls. The dark lake sat in the middle of a circular cavern, fed by the river. There were a number of off shoots on the shelves that lined the waters edge; it was just a matter of picking which one to travel through at this point. Ori was half way to the glowing shore when he realized he’d lost his tiny friend and turned every which way to find nothing. Fear clenched his heart as he dove under the water. It wasn’t till his third dive that his questing hands found a clinging material and he pulled the limp figure to shore. The red lips from before were a terrifying blue color as the cowl from the hood stuck to the supposedly closed eyes. Scared to find sightless ones beneath the clinging material Ori merely opened the tiny jaw and breathed into the unresponsive lungs, pumping the plump chest the way he’d read in one of his books. Before choosing to become a scribe he’d dabbled with the thought of healing but found blood to be a little too much for the sad constitution he was blessed with. But it seemed it was a worthy endeavor after all as not four pumps and five breaths later a gushing of water rushed up and out of his friend’s mouth. She was gasping in a few moments and Ori was stoically ignoring the shivering and tears of his own body and eyes.

            The stuck on hood turned to see the tearful youth and those blue lips, turning purple and pink before his eyes smiled, it was all the thanks that needed saying and the pair were off in a second once some semblance of normalcy was returned to the girl’s breathing. They’d gone all of ten leagues in a single direction before they began to hear yelling up ahead. They slowed their pace and peered through the darkness to find a cavern lit by torches and filled with highly agitated dwarrow, some entirely too familiar looking, speaking in quick Khuzdul. The one in the center of it all was a tall burly looking dwarf with stringy brown hair that flashed with large sections of silver as he roared at the cowering congregation. His most distinguishing feature was the lack of his left eye, the pocket open to the air and seemingly filled with some form of oozing debris, the right eye was a deep bloodshot brown and glared at the rest.

            Ori glanced down at his companion’s pursed mouth and read her hand motions, _What are they saying?_

            He replied in kind _The bigger one that’s missing the eye is yelling at the rest for loosing us. He’s telling them it’s useless to search for the bodies; Nori wouldn’t do anything for the dead. But they’re going to try and keep up the ruse. He’s supposed to be here within the hour with their demands._

            That expressive mouth scowled into the room as she nodded. She elbowed him and gestured towards the opening on the far right of the room where a pair of dwarrow were standing guard. It must be the only exit out of here, as it didn’t seem there were any other sentinels. Retreating back a few paces the pair prepared to wait. It didn’t take long before Ori recognized his brother’s muted tones, the ones he only used when he was particularly pissed. The pair glanced out into the cavern again to find the leader circling their Nori as he spun in place, keeping step with the larger dwarrow, never offering him his back. It was during the second circuit that the mutable eyes, turned a harsh yellow brown in his anger, caught sight of the bedraggled pair in the corner and widened, almost imperceptibly. He was quick to return his gaze to the circling leader and even quicker to growl something in Khuzdul back at the slimy bastard, _Show me my brother and I’ll show you your prize._

            This gave the dwarrow pause as he stared harshly at his opponent, _You’re in no position to make demands, Nori son of Vori. I’ve the boy and that little piece of ass you’ve been chasing around the Mountian these past few years. Don’t think your predilections for younger flesh haven’t gone noted._

            Ori jabbed an elbow into his cloaked friend as she began to growl at the slight. But continued to sign regardless. It was at the peak of the third circuit that Nori’s hands twitched and the hidden pair took their chances. Ori ran for all he was worth, his cloaked friend pacing him. As the first pair of dwarrow came after them, with growls of surprise, he howled his own war cry and head butted the one in front as the tiny one grabbed the reaching hand of her opponent and used his momentum to twirl him around, breaking the arm and dislocating the shoulder. With a twirling kick she slammed a powerful foot into the gasping dwarrow and grabbed the dazed Ori. The pair slammed through three more before they were met with the armed guards. The dwarfling was wiry but hardly trained in anything but writing. Still he did his best, dodging the spear and staying at length from the guard. It was just as his opponent was making a sweep with the spear that the youth was sure he’d lost, but just as before, tiny hands grasped him and thrust him away into open air. As he fell he watched in horror as the tiny, cloaked girl received a gaping slash across her stomach just before she slammed the sword she’d released from her now decapitated foe into Ori’s adversary’s foot and used the hilt to hold her weight as she ran up the taller creature and wrapped her legs around the neck and head. With a twist and a resounding snap he fell dead next to his fellow. Grabbing up the spear she used it as a support as she walked over to Ori’s side and the pair turned to watch Nori’s fight.

            The smaller tri-domed dwarf was being slowly but surely backed into a corner. His daggers flashing in the torchlight, clinking against the thrusting of the duel wielded swords of his larger, cycloptic opponent. There was a slice against his left hand and one on his right cheek, nothing new on the weathered and pocked face of the older dwarf, just a snarl and a sneer that twisted the already terrifying face into something fierce and frenzied. Nori felt the wall against his back as he flung himself towards it to avoid a strong parry, he heard the wordless cry echo across the cavern as the tiny Nightshade cried out for him, and he felt the air displace as the second sword made to descend on his head. With a speed that surprised him as much as it surprised his enemy Nori swooped down, leg connecting with the taller dwarrow, sweeping him off his feet. With a twirl and a leap the nimble dwarf found himself standing with a foot on a crushed chest, a knife in a thick neck and a fierce snarl on his normally benign face. The life seeped out of the single brown eye quickly, the last expression in the underground leader’s face shock as his body tried to process the pain before it was all over.

            Rising to his feet, Nori ran across the hall before the rest of the dwarrow could converge and grasped both the hostages by the arms in bruising holds. The three ran through the tunnels and were deposited outside of an alley that lay between a brothel and a bar. The elder dwarrow didn’t release either charge, however, until he’d made it to the home of his elder brother who, by some Mahal blessed circumstance, was still working at the store. Once inside he threw the tiny thief onto the floor, ignoring the pained yelp she gave and the twinge of panic and pain he felt at hearing it, and thrust his brother in front of himself checking for cuts or bruises. He ignored the whining assurances he was fine, and upon finding them true he turned the full extent of his rage on the cringing mass of dark fabric. “What the _hell_ did you think you were doing with _my brother_?!” Nori made to grab the lass by the hood only to find Ori wrapping his tiny frame around his arm. It was then he realized what the lad was saying as he shouted into the room, “SHE SAVED ME NORI! I WAS FOLLOWING YOU AND SHE _SAVED ME_!” The tears in the lad’s eyes and throat were disconcerting but the quiver in those expressive lips were heart rending as his little Petal stayed on the ground, not looking at him, as she waited for some punishment that she didn’t deserve.

            The blood that was washing his floor wasn’t making this any better as he realized she was wounded. Shaking the dwarf child off him he knelt on the ground and sighed when that caused her to flinch. “I just want to see what you’ve done to yourself. I promise not to loose myself again.” He injected as much teasing as he could into the statement and was beyond pained that he received nothing for his efforts. It was Ori who had to grasp the trembling lass and take her to the washroom. And it was Ori who bandaged her up and assured him afterwards that she was fine, just a small gash. And it was Ori who told him how she’d gotten the wound in the first place, and what she’d done to the bastard who’d tried to turn his little brother into a pincushion. Ori was also the only one of the brother’s Ri who was surprised when he returned to the washroom and found her gone. But it was Nori who assured his little brother he’d find her and make amends as he left the lad with a promise not to leave the house again that night for the sake of his older brother’s sanity.

            He hadn’t gone too far before he felt that strange awareness that he’d developed for his little cohort. At this point he wasn’t sure he could actually erase her from his psyche, or that he wanted to. So turning and walking into the fission between an oddly familiar little toy store and a small pawnshop he found her leaning against the wall of the pawnshop, watching him under her hood. Hands clenched tightly as if trying to stop herself from something, keeping her stationary. He stopped in front of her and leaned himself against the toyshop, mirroring her, clenching his own hands to stop himself from reaching out for her, he didn’t deserve the luxury. “Thank you. For saving Ori.”

            “They took me first. They thought that would be enough to make you dance for them. Ori was an unexpected boon.” Her voice was rough as she contributed to this awkward conversation.

            He sighed and raked his hands across his face, cradling his tired head in them as he mumbled, “Heh, he knew me better than I’d thought. I didn’t know he knew about you or your mother. I’m sorry you got caught in this.” He’d never do business with anyone in the Mountain again; it became too easy to hurt the things he cared about.

             Soft leather touched his hand as he heard the shifting of fabric. Looking through his hands he saw her tension was taking on a different shape, her cloaked form no longer twisted in defense but in a bashfulness as she crossed her legs and leaned her upper torso forward slightly, still staring downwards, “I didn’t realize I mattered enough to risk capture over.” Before the hand could retreat he’d grasped it and drew her closer to his prone body.

            Abashed and tired, the dwarrow leaned his forehead in a gesture of friendship and tenderness to that of his little Poisonous Petal's hidden one. His hands were tender and reassuring as they ran up and down the length of her sides, stopping only when bumping across the hidden bandages under the dark garb. His eyes were closed as he breathed in the scent of sweat, strawberry, and some musk he associated solely with _her_. Her hands were trailing through his hair, over his cheeks, into his beard, and with a slight tug his lips were hers. This was the first time she’d ever made the first move, the first time he’d given her full rein to do as she pleased. It was all sweetness and languid movements. Her mouth a smooth slide of silk against his own as she explored the familiar curve of his own, tiny tongue tasting the crease and then drawing his own out to play with hers, reassuring the pair that they hadn’t missed the chance or inadvertently had their last taste all those months ago in a dirty alley.

            She shifted up to press against him, feeling every part of him alive and intact. Bilbo couldn’t think of a single moment she’d felt so much fear then when she’d seen her thief backed into a corner and about to be skewered. Before too long the tightness in her chest that had stayed with her since the cavern began to unwind and with it her iron fisted control over her emotional upheaval came with it.

            The chest against his was heaving, and the lips were trembling. Salt that had nothing to do with the moist cavern he was lavishing attention on was making itself known. Breaking from the small mouth he buried the hot little face into his neck and moved his calloused palms up and down the quivering back. Tiny fists clenched his clothes in tight bunches, as if trying to anchor him to her and this plane of existence, as he rocked her back and forth. Nori had never felt so humbled than right that moment, with his face buried into a damp hood, right as this tiny creature of tricks and traps, of giggles and compassion, stood in his arms trembling and trying to burrow into his own skin. Like she would give the world to keep him whole and hale. And he knew he would steal that same world if it would keep her by his side always.

            So of course, he had to say something that righted the axis of their existence, “I do hope you’ll not feel any shyness in using those vicious thighs of yours on me own thick head one of these days.” His voice was a little horse and his hands trembled as they trailed over said piece of anatomy in a caress that was a bit more reverent than explicit, but the watery laugh that lit her tear soaked lips was all real and perfect. With one last quick slide of lips and one last grasp of arms she detached from clinging arms and disappeared into the shadows of the mountain once more.

***

            When, a few months later, Dori was first choice for an exceptional position in the Merchant Guild, hand selected by Thorin himself apparently, the only one not surprised was Ori, who’d made a clandestine habit of visiting with his new little friend during her stays at the Mountain. And when Master Balin noticed Ori’s exceptional abilities and scooped him up as an apprentice, well, he was enthusiastic about proving his worth and ever thankful to his tiny ally, one who used Inglishmêk but didn’t know Khuzdul. One who could hear for leagues but couldn’t swim. One who knew Nori but had no clue who Dori was. The tiny cloaked mystery who’d pocketed that spear from that cavern fight for later use.


End file.
